by John Keller
Draining the swamp—now one of Trump's signature policies—was actually a last minute idea by the campaign that was intended to harvest a few remaining votes. It was never meant to be one of the central planks of the Trump presidency.
In fact, the lobbying ban that grew out of it initially caused the transition team a real headache with regard to staffing, as most competent professionals able to perform governmental functions have lobbied at some point or other. The headache was so severe that at one point Trump told Newt Gingrich he was thinking of discarding the concept altogether.
